Let’s Connect

Arepas de Queso (Cheese Arepas)

Arepa is a typical Colombian dish from the region Antioquia, my home state. We serve Arepas warm for breakfast, spread with butter and cheese on top, with a good cup of Colombian hot chocolate. These Arepas are an essential part of the Colombian daily diet.

You can serve Arepas as a main course or appetizer with any topping you like.

Erica,
I have done this with Grits ( I know no the same, but, the best I can do in my area)..I use less water so that the grits can be formed easier (trial and error as too how much water to use).. After the grits have cooled a little, I add mozzarella shredded, fold in the cheeze and grits.FYI-WET HANDS really does make it easier to handle… Form into balls and flatten..Then I bake them on a greased cookie sheet….I’m still trying to get the temp and timing down..but After trial and error I end up taking them out when they look like what my mom’s used to look like..They never taste the same as hers,but, I’m gettng closer!!! lol

In the US, the best ingredient to make the paisa arepas is “White Hominy”. You can get it from Goya foods, but there are also other sources. It is very much like mazamorra. The label on the can also calls it “Mote Blanco” and “Pozole”. It is exactly like the cooked white corn we use for the arepas in Antioquia. It comes in slightly salted water, so I drain it, rinse it, and drain it well before grinding it (on a food processor) to the consistency of the arepa dough. The result is the real thing, perfects arepas. Like you, I am a paisa, married to a gringa. But I am not the cook. She makes the most delicious Colombian foods, and she was thrilled to find your website. Thank you for doing it.

Wow, your website was such a find! I was born in Medellin and came to the US with my family when I was very young so I never learned how to cook our traditional dishes. Looking through your blog has brought a smile to my face! My gringo boyfriend and I want to try to make arepas this weekend, and he’s super excited to try some of your other recipes, especially that Colombian pizza! Mmmm!

Thank you so much for this website! I love cooking Colombian food for my Caleño husband, and these recipes are so authentic and easy to follow! He was delighted with the arepitas we had with dinner tonight!

Hello Erica,
I see everyone is as excited as I am about your blog. Great way for you to make new friends. You have a new one here in Houston, Tx. I am from Bta and my mother used to cook something that she called ‘entero’. do you have ‘entero’ in Medellin?

Hi, I went to Colombia 2yrs ago with my friend to visit her family and absolutely loved the food. So recently I found your blog and started making many of these recipes….which turned out delicious! (especially arroz con coca-cola…so simple. The town I stayed at was Santa Marta, and I gotta say the chuzos were amazing too. but I have a question… On the chuzos, they were spreading some sauce over them…it was kind of greenish…I was wondering if you might now what sauce that is and how to make it. Well thanks for posting up all these recipes they are great…and keep doing what you do. Best wishes

Mariel- Every city has different recipes. In Medellin it is popular to marinade the meat for 24 hours with herbs and beer and spread beer with oil when you are grilling the chuzos.Maybe one of my readers can help you.

I also made these last weekend as a side dish to the Pollo Asado (found in the Main Dishes section) I made for my sister’s birthday. If I knew how EASY these were to make, I would have made arepas every day for breakfast, Medellín style. I only added a pinch of salt to the dough but that’s just how I like them. I will never, ever ask my mom to make arepas again just so I can satisfy my craving. I can now make them myself! THANKS Erica!

I first tried arepas at a Cuban restaurant outside of Orlando and their style served was the Arepas Rellenos de Queso. I love all kinds of grilled cheese and this is no exception. Thanks for your recipe because I’m using it tonight for a Cheese & Corn Arepa stuffed with a Papaya and Habanero Chicken filling. Muchas Gracias!

Is there a sauce that adds avocado chunks to a chimichurri in Colombia? My mother in law is Colombian and she made empanadas one morning with what I thought was a chimichurri (I’ve seen recipes but never made it or tried it myself) and they added avocado right before serving. Omg it was soooooo good on the empanadas. I want to try and mimic the recipe for my husband as a surprise but I’ve had a hard time finding the recipe considering I don’t know what it even is

Hi Erica!
As everyboby else I am very glad I found your blog. It has become my main cookbook 😉 Half of my family is from La Guajira where they make also a delicious type of arepa a bit smaller than the Paisa arepa but much thicker. It is usually stuffed with different types of fillings. I tried to bake them in the oven because it is much quicker but they turned out too dry. Do you have any recipe for baked arepas?
Thank you so much for having this blog!
Olga Lucia

Can you cook these on an arepa pan (the ones with the holes) or do they need to be cooked through in some way first? I am worried they will break up? We use PAM but my Colombian husband cooks them in the oven, they seem a bit hard (delicious but not like they are in Col.!) Do you have a recipe for hogao, can’t see it here. Thanks, great blog!

So great to find your recipes! We’ll be experimenting with arepas this weekend. Would you mind emailing us to let us know what kind of cheese you could use instead of the traditional Colombian farmer’s cheese? We’re going to try to find it, but just in case…!

I spent my childhood in Santa Marta, and arepas are one of the many, many things I miss desperately… along with the queso campesino/queso costeño that went both in and on them, and which I have not been able to find anywhere else. It’s a relatively hard cheese, kind of rubbery–almost squeaky–and definitely salty.

While the real thing is probably only available in Colombia, I have found something that’s surprisingly close: white cheddar cheese curds, which is the sort of cheese that Canadians use for poutine. Grind it up in the food processor, and you can add it to the arepa mix. (I use a LOT more than this recipe calls for, though; about 2 cups ground cheese to 1 cup masarepa, then medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes per side, because it does make it a bit melty.)

Since the white cheddar cheese curds are also a bit hard to find–I order mine online–another reasonably good substitute is anything being sold in the Hispanic food section as “frying cheese.” Often it may wind up being moister than what’s used for arepas in Colombia, but as long as you know that, you can tweak the amount of water you add to the recipe, and it’ll still turn out well. (We’re only talking maybe a teaspoon less water, if that, rather than a dramatic reduction.)

I can’t wait to try some of these recipes for my boyfriend! His father was Colombian (passed away), and he grew up with his Canadian mother making him Colombian foods, supposedly she was excellent at it, but I’d love to learn from a real Colombian woman as well! He lived in Colombia every year for 3 months until he was 18. He always talks about Arepas, and I have never had them, but I really want to try them! This recipe looks pretty simple. Not sure what I would use here in Canada for the pre-cooked cornmeal, since we do not have many latin american food stores…. hopefully I can find a good substitute!
Thanks Erica!

I tried making these this morning and I thought they were delicious! However my boyfriend pointed out that in Colombia the arepas tend to be a little bit more “hard.” The ones I made were pretty soft..they folded easily and there wasn’t much “resistance” to them when you bit into them. I thought I followed the recipe to the letter – do you have any idea what I might have done wrong?

I used fresh mozzarella – could that be the issue? Or did I just not cook them long enough?

I tried them this week for the first time, with the Pork, Mushrooms and Avocado Sauce on this wonderful site. So easy to make and the taste was awesome. I was lucky enough to find arepa flour at my local Safeway. I look forward to trying some of your other dishes that are served with them.
Thank you Erica for sharing your wonderful food with us.

If you are in Australia I found this South African product which works just as well; Protea maize meal. I found it at a particular woolies, but check South African specialty stores too. If you are in Brisbane, go to penissi in the gaba to get PAN and lots of other Colombian items like triguisar and panela.

Erica, my husband and I have fallen in love with arepas, thanks to your recipe! I have especially found it helpful because I am gluten-intolerant, but corn is A-OK, so this is a great bread sub for me. Do you have any tips or tricks for prepping in advance or speeding up the process, or do you just make them fresh from square one every time.

I usually make a large batch and cook them for about 60 seconds on each side. Let them cool and place them in the freezer in zip lock bags.Every time you want one, just take it out of the freezer and cook it until is done.

I just met the nicest Colombian man at church and I look forward to trying this recipe so next week at Mass I can bring him a surprise! I am hoping the way to mans heart is thru his stomach so I want to make sure I make Oscar something I know he will like! Your site has been amazing for me! Thank you so much!

I’m curious what I’ve done wrong. This is my first time making arepas, or any kind of Columbian food. It seems so simple, but as I am cooking them they are just falling apart. The dough sticks well enough to itself, but once it begins to cook and I have to go to flip them they just crumble into a mess. Still delicious, but not arepas.

Common mistake …. sounds like either too much water … type of cheese maybe to fresh. Love this Blog… for 14 yrs spent about a 1-2 months per year in Cali. Fell in love with the people and Culture .
El barrio Alphonso Lopes

My wife is Colombian and her mom made these all the time. I made them for breakfast this morning and they were great! “Mamita” passed a 3 years ago and we did not have the foresight to write down recipes so your website is a Godsend. Thank you!

[…] you want to make arepas from scratch at home, here’s a great, classic recipe at My Columbian Recipes. Pre-cooked arepa flour is available on amazon at a variety of prices, from $2 to $7, or you can […]

[…] for dinner. Then, for breakfast the next day, the rice and beans are reheated and served with egg, arepa, chorizo, chicharrón, grilled beef , chicken or pork. The Calentado at Eating House is a […]